[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                 DISCRIMINATION IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL

  (Mr. KAGEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, discrimination is alive and well all across 
America. You may not have heard about it on the radio or seen it on 
television, but it's still alive and well. You won't see it on 
television because discrimination today is beneath the skin, beneath 
the skin of our entire society, as insurance companies, omnipotent as 
they are, continue to discriminate based on the preexisting condition 
of a citizen.
  These insurance companies no longer discriminate on the basis of skin 
color. Rather, they discriminate against women because of the calcium, 
or the lack of it, in their bones. They discriminate against people who 
may have coronary artery disease or any of a number of medical 
conditions.
  The lessons of both my profession and my faith have made it clear: We 
are all really the same beneath our skin. We're all made of the same 
clay. And 40 years after the civil rights movement has established that 
all citizens of any color shall be able to drink from the same water 
fountain, sit on the same bus, and attend the same medical clinic, our 
Nation still remains divided, not by skin color but by skin chemistry.
  Mr. Speaker, it's time we bring an end to discrimination in health 
care.

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